Bryant's return to Blue Devils is good news, bad news for opponents

WINTER HAVEN — Good news for the Winter Haven boys basketball players in the spring was bad news for their opponents. Keyshawn Bryant was returning to Winter Haven for his senior year.

The highly touted Bryant spent his junior year at Huntington Prep in West Virginia, refining his game, which the Blue Devils hope will pay dividends this year in their push to return to the state tournament.

"I'm very excited to come back and play with my friends and play for my coach, coach Woodside," he said.

The bad news for his basketball opponents actually began when Bryant was in middle school. He was in the seventh grade when the Blue Devils last played in the state tournament, but Bryant really wasn't paying attention.

"My focus at that time wasn't basketball, it was football," he said. "I was a football player."

He was a quarterback, running back and wide receiver, but a growth spurt and knee injuries led him to give up football and focus on basketball.

It was a smart decision. The 6-foot-6 Bryant first gained recognition beyond the local community, he said, during his sophomore year. As he enters his senior year, he's one of the top players in the state.

Bryant said his parents felt it would be good for him to go to Huntington Prep to develop his game and get better. The original plan was to go his senior year instead of his junior year, but the way it worked out might be even better.

Bryant improved his game, and while he was gone, it allowed Dorian James to become more of a leader. Now as a senior, he can rejoin a talented Winter Haven squad and make a run at a state title.

"I think this has worked out a whole lot better this way," Bryant said. "I'm better and more mature."

Winter Haven coach Tryone Woodside has seen Bryant's improvement. At Huntingon Prep, Bryant handled the ball more, so his ballhandling skills are improved against top competition and he also can handle the physical play better against top competition.

Bryant is a slasher who can get to the basket with ease to score, but his shooting has improved.

"We've been preaching mid-range, so he has a very good mid-range shot," Woodside said.

Woodside said that Bryant being gone his junior year instead of his senior year has benefitted him.

"It put him on the national stage....he's known more," Woodside said. "If he stayed (at Winter Haven as a junior) then went out, it would have been like, who's this kid, where did he come from? So it works out good."

Bryant said that when he first started receiving more attention, it went to his head a little, but he has learned to be more humble. Woodside gives credit to junior varsity coach Curtis Reddick in Bryant's development in this regard.

"He preaches 'no me' and was hard on him," Woodside said. "It makes it easy when they get to me. I don't have to crush an ego. He's always put them in check."

Bryant spent the summer rekindling the chemistry with not only James, but with the rest of his Winter Haven teammates. The challenge was to develop teamwork and not having Bryant or James try to it themselves.

"In the summer, they did it a lot, but in the summer, I don't micro-manage," Woodside said. "Sometimes I try to see what kind of player they are character-wise with the hero syndrome and that kind of thing. It helps them a lot having guys he has a relationship with and he knows can play, so he doesn't feel that pressure to take over. Most of those things come when he feels there's no one else on the team."

Among the teams recruiting Bryant are Florida Gulf Coast, Illinois, Memphis, Cincinnati, USF, UCF and Georgia Southern. Before heading off to college, Bryant, like James, is anxious to end his high school career on a high note. The experience late in his freshman season of playing with Chance McSpadden, then a senior, has fueled his desire.

"He was giving me tips on how to be good," Bryant said. "And when I saw we didn't (reach the state tournament) that year, Winter Haven guys were telling me we didn't win state since '70-something. That pushed me."

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